Construction of a $50 million wind farm in Victoria will commence this year and once completed, will deliver clean power for just $81.50 a megawatt hour.
A project of Australian company Windlab Limited, the six-turbine, 19.5MW wind farm will be located north west of Bendigo and should be operational by early next year. The facility is expected to generate around 80,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually; enough to supply 14,000 homes.
Funding for the project has been secured from a major Japanese investor, Eurus Energy Holdings Corporation of Japan.
Windlab Chief Executive Officer Roger Price said the project demonstrated “enormous opportunity and benefit”.
“This is the cheapest wind energy produced in Australia and the reason for that is it is the best wind resource in Australia. At $81.50 fixed for 20 years, this electricity is more than cost competitive with any form of new build conventional generation.”
Mr. Price said the facility will generate electricity nearly 90% of the time.
Aside from producing cheap electricity, Coonooer Bridge Wind Farm is the first renewable energy project in Australia with an ownership structure that includes the local farming community. Additionally, an annual grant program aiming to support community initiatives in the Coonooer-Yeungroon region will offer up to $15,000 annually once the wind farm is operational.
Power generated will be sold to the ACT. Windlab was awarded a 20 year Feed- In-Tariff (FiT) for Coonooer Bridge Wind Farm with the ACT Government in February as a result of the ACT’s Large Scale Wind Auction.
Windlab has chosen Vestas as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor and wind turbine supplier for the project. Vestas will also provide ongoing operations support and maintenance.
More than 70 jobs will be created during construction.
“This is a win-win for the local community which wholeheartedly supports this development, for our company, for the residents of the ACT and all who support renewable energy.”
Windlab is based in Canberra and has wholly owned subsidiaries in Canada, South Africa and the USA. Key to Windlab’s success is its WindScape technology, which enables the company to identify “green-field” wind farm opportunities at a desktop level. WindScape was originally developed by the CSIRO, then refined by Windlab.
